


The Pathfinder Blues

by HeWhoIsMany



Category: Mass Effect: Andromeda
Genre: Asari - Freeform, Gen, Transformation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-10
Updated: 2020-05-16
Packaged: 2021-03-01 22:42:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 6,319
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23584807
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HeWhoIsMany/pseuds/HeWhoIsMany
Summary: During a difficult situation requiring stronger biotics, it's discovered that SAM has even more control over Sara's physiology than they thought.
Kudos: 5





	1. Chapter 1

One would think that, after defeating the greatest threat in the Milky Way species had found in Andromeda, the Human Pathfinder would have an easy job. For ever daring to hope this, Sara Ryder hated herself. The party right after killing the Archon had been awesome, but once the confetti was all swept away and the cakes eaten, it was time to get back to making this damn place more livable for everyone. At that exact moment, that involved exploring and activating a newly discovered Remnant Vault, recently unearthed after a joint Angarran-Milky Way building project broke ground.

As was usual, at the first sign of anything Remnant, the solution became, “Through the Pathfinder at it.” Sure, there were three other Pathfinders now, but they didn’t have nearly the experience with this stuff that Sara did. So there she was, in a dark, ancient tech facility, fighting security robots, side by side with Peebee and Cora. The former had been an obvious choice for this particular mission, since she was still one of the foremost experts in Remnant technology, and the latter was more due to personal reasons. Right after they’d finished clearing out a bunch of the floating lazer-shooting bots, Sara cleared her voice and asked, “So, uh, I’d normally ask after the mission is over, but I’m too impatient: how’d your date go with Kandros?”

The question reverberated through the enormous space around them, echoing for half a minute as they walked through the dark, before Cora finally gave her superior an answer. “He...was a gentleman.” The answer she gave sounded forced, like she’d been asked the question by a parent whom she didn’t want to offend with her reply.

It made Peebee gigglesnort, the light on her gun falling and she crouched over for a second. “Wow,” was all she could say at first, but her squadmates stopped until she was done laughing. “It’s just,” she said, humor still coloring her words. “I know you’re all obsessed with asari and everything, but you actually sounded like Matron being asked about her sex life for a second there.” Sucking in a breath, Sara winced. Bringing these two together had been a rough idea to start with, since Cora strived to emulate a culture that Peebee had rejected. “Also, from the sounds of it, the Pathfinder here tried setting you up with someone too.”

Uncomfortable with the sudden attention, Sara was glad that neither of them had their lights shone on her, because if they had, they’d have seen the pink blush spilling across her cheeks. “You too?” Cora asked, her voice steady in a way that made it clear to all that she was choosing to ignore Peebee’s comments about the way she lived her life.

“Yeah,” Peebee replied right away. “But at least you got to have a date with Kandros. The guy’s got a line of suitors back at the Nexus, even if he hasn’t realized it yet. I bet he took you somewhere expensive, paid for it. You know who I had a date with?” Cora made a sound that indicated she definitely wanted to hear the answer. “ _ Suvi _ . What the fuck is the point of dating someone on the same ship as us!”

A lot of people had wondered why Sara Ryder, hero of the galaxy, had remained single thus far. The thing was, all the people she was attracted to were under her command, and she was super not okay with abusing that power imbalance to get sexy times. She was still interested in romance, which was why she was often setting up dates like this, for her friends/squadmates/employees(?). In a wavering voice, Sara asked Peebee, “How, uh, how did that date go, anyway? You never told me?”

“Ha!” Unlike before, this was not one of Peebee’s friendly laughs, but an almost aggressive bark. “Me and Suvi? You actually thought we’d work out? Let me tell you how that went: we talked shop a little, I started making crude suggestions for how to spend the night, and she got offended because I wasn’t properly wooing her and stuff. Now, every time we pass each other on the ship, it’s really awkward.”

That possibility had not occurred to Sara when she’d been setting up the date, even if in retrospect it was a bit blindingly obvious. “Cool,” she whispered, mostly to herself. “Cool, cool, cool.” They didn’t say anything after that, but soon the usual vault activity was upon them: activating a purification field and then running like hell to avoid imminent death. It was going well, they’d done it a lot by this point, until suddenly it wasn’t.

They were riding up the second of the gravity wells, up into the highest floor that led outside, when the power in the place flickered, and the well stopped. Now, they were just floating hundreds of feet in the air, between the floors, and the field was coming. After swearing under her breath, Ryder asked, “SAM, ideas?” Almost immediately, she got some. ‘ **Pathfinder, by using biotic fields, you should be able to manually raise yourselves to escape the purification.** ’

Sara quickly shared the plan with Peebee and Cora, who got their fields up and going, straining to lift them all up, but it was going too slow. “SAM, switch profiles, I need biotics too.” The AI complied, and Sara added her own skills to the pull. But it still wasn’t enough, they needed to pick up speed or they’d soon all be dead. “Come on, come on,” Sara muttered under her breath, straining her mostly underused biotics as much as she could. “If only I was a strong biotic.” Almost immediately, SAM spoke up again.  ‘ **Pathfinder, there is a method available to me for increasing your biotic power. However, there are possible-** ’  Growling, Sara interrupted him, “Shut up and do it!”

Suddenly, Sara’s body went numb, to the point where the only muscle in her body, the only one that mattered, was her biotic power. It was getting stronger too, just as SAM had promised, and they were ascending through the air, through the broken gravity well, quicker and quicker. Sara could see out of the corner of her eye as her squadmates were looking at her oddly, but she couldn’t focus on that. The only thing that mattered was surviving this. Cora and Peebee must have been getting exhausted, as Sara felt their biotics weaken, flicker, and finally disappear, but that was okay, Sara found herself able to compensate for that without any issues. Finally, they reached the first floor and without any further ado booked it to the front of the vault, to the safe area. Feeling was starting to return to Sara’s body, mostly in her legs, which made that easier, but something felt odd about it too.

With the purification field shut off, and all of them safe, Sara took a moment to catch her breath, as it felt like her body had been on fire. In fact, nothing about her body felt right. She knew her friends were talking to her, but the words weren’t traveling into Sara’s ears and to her brain. It was just noise, meaningless noise. Suddenly, Sara caught sight of one of her hands, and realized it looked bright blue. Before she could even start to wonder what that meant, her consciousness started fading fast, and the floor was coming up towards her as she fell.

The next thing Sara remembered, it was waking up to the bright lights of the Tempest’s medical bay. Blearily blinking her eyes open, she looked over to see Lexi looking at some datapads, only to catch Sara’s eyes and quickly walk over. “How are you feeling, Ryder?” Sara tried to reply, but her mouth was so dry, forming words felt impossible. Giving Sara a compassionate look, Lexi told her, “I’ll get you something to drink.”

While Lexi was out doing that, Sara saw Cora and Peebee enter the infirmary. Both looked more downtrodden than normal, almost unable to look Sara in the eye. “Pathfinder, we both want to apologize. You had to make-up for our failure...” Starting to remember what had happened in the vault, Sara didn’t understand why they were apologizing. After all, it wasn’t anything too major, they’d been through worse scrapes than that.

Clearly putting effort into looking more happy than she felt, Peebee tried for a joke. “Well, at least there’s more than two Asari on the ship now, huh?” Sara didn’t understand the jape, not until she looked down and noticed something was odd. She’d been removed from her usual exploration armor, and was wearing a medical gown. The strange thing was, she didn’t look like herself.

As she’d seen right before losing consciousness, her skin didn’t resemble any shade that came with humans anymore, but was instead a bright blue, a few shades lighter than Peebee’s skin tone. Sara also knew how large her breasts normally were, and from the way they were tenting the gown, they’d grown larger as well as bluer. Soon, Lexi re-entered the room with something to drink, which felt odd going down Sara’s throat, but definitely helped. “What happened to me?” she asked them, her voice coming out different from normal, flowing with almost a musical cadence to it.

For an answer, Lexi turned a nearby datapad into a mirror by changing a few settings, and used it to show Sara her reflection. Her fears were confirmed: she was an asari now. Gone was her hair, replaced with that weird cartilage stuff. On the whole, she still mostly looked like herself, but at the same time very alien and removed, in a way Sara couldn’t quite pin down. “Why?” she wondered aloud, only for SAM to answer her question.  ‘ **You required more biotic power, Pathfinder, and at the time the only method available to me to ensure your survival was to boost your biotics by altering your physiology into that of an asari.** ’  Feeling annoyed that she’d interrupted SAM and made him do this without telling her the consequences, Sara asked Lexi, “Can I change back?”

It looked as though the doctor was doing her best to appear comforting to her patient, though she wasn’t doing particularly well at it. “We’re still trying to work that out. SAM, the Initiative’s biological researchers and I have been pouring over what happened, and doing our best to find a way to reverse it. We’re confident becoming a human again will be possible, but as for when, we can’t be sure. In the meantime, you’ll need to get used to being an asari.”

Cora and Peebee helped Sara from Lexi’s office to her personal cabin, apologizing the whole time. It made Sara laugh though, because it seemed like the two were actually getting along now. Peebee helped Sara with actual asari stuff, like hygiene and things like that, while Cora worked with Sara to refine her stronger biotic abilities. It was crazy, too. As a human, even with SAM’s help, Sara had never been much of a biotic heavyweight. But after watching Sara as an asari through her weight around, Cora had to admit she was now one of the strongest biotics she’d ever seen. But even when Sara was working with one, the other was nearby. The enmity between the two was forgotten by their shared experience in helping Sara acclimate to a new way of being.

After a few days, Sara was starting to get the hang of it all, even if it was weird to suddenly be an entirely different species. She was ready to head out on the next big Pathfinder mission when she got a video call request from her brother. Scott had been through such an ordeal, being out most of Sara’s time as Pathfinder, only to wake up and get kidnapped. Still, he’d been holding up pretty well considering, and was still the overly silly, science-savvy dork she knew and loved.

Heading to the conference room, Sara initiated the call, only to not see her brother on the other end. Instead, there was an asari, one that looked quite a bit like her, giving her the stink eye. It took a few moments for Sara to put together what this meant, and when she did, she couldn’t help herself. “Stop laughing!” Scott’s voice was a lot higher pitched now that he was an asari, but it still somehow sounded like him to Sara’s ears. “I can’t believe this happened!”

Once Sara was able to calm down and stop giggling senselessly to herself, she managed to ask, “How the hell did it happen to you too?” But it was only after asking the question that Sara realized the answer. Slapping her forehead (and some of her cartilage tentacle things), she said, “Oh! Right, you’re connected to SAM too. I guess for him to change me, he had to change you too.” For a moment, Sara considered apologizing, but then realized giving her little brother a hard time was more fun. “So, how’s your gender bending experience been, ‘sis’?”

“You’re not getting anything for Christmas.” The proclamation hit Sara like a freight train. Scott’s gifts and cards always had way more thought and care put into them than anyone else Sara knew, and the idea she’d be missing out because of this actually hurt. “No, scratch that, I’m going to make sure Vetra hand delivers you some coal.” The joke softened the blow a little, and from there the Ryder siblings discussed how weird the changes were, and how they were going to move forward until they got a fix. It was near the end of the call when Sara brought up something she’d been thinking about: if this did get fixed, maybe they could find a way to make species changing like this easy for them. They could become turians, silurians, whatever. Scott did not seem to like the idea. “If you use that to start messing with my biology without permission, I’m turning you into a pyjak.”


	2. The Asari Dilemma

“Are...you sure about this place, Peebee?” The question came from Sara Ryder’s blue lips with a wince. She and her squadmate, Peebee, were standing in one of the many dingy back-alley’s of Kadara, where the archeologist had promised they could find ‘the most relaxing place in Andromeda’. Jaal had overheard the claim and scoffed, with Sara finding the claim just as dubious. Ever since the incident where SAM had turned Sara (and her brother) into Asari Maidens, Peebee had been getting a lot chummier with her Pathfinder friend. For all her griping about the Asari, apparently having one around (who wasn’t Lexi) was a breath of fresh air.

The cheery Asari girl rolled her eyes and actually pushed Sara through the curtain covering into the building itself, telling her, “Don’t be a baby, Pathfinder!” Before Sara could snap back, her eyes were assaulted by what laid inside. Namely, a normal looking waiting room, with an Asari Matron at the desk, smiling at them. Even more confused as to where she’d been taken, Sara stood by as Peebee approached the receptionist and told her, “One for me and my friend here, full works, same room.” Sara started blushing purple, scandalized by what her first though as to where she’d been taken was.

But after a short wait on fairly comfortable chairs, the two Asari were taken into the back, through a hallway, and into...a jacuzzi? They looked a bit different from the ones Sara had seen on Earth, clearly made with Asari tech, the water having a bit of a bluish-purple tinge to it, but there was no doubt it was actually something like a hot tub. The attendant left them alone, and to Sara’s surprise Peebee started stripping her clothes off, revealing her curvy blue body and walking over to the water to dip in. Sara was looking away, feeling awkward, when she heard Peebee giggle-snort and say, “Come on, you killed the Archon! You can strip down and enjoy yourself without keeling over from embarrassment.”

More than anything else, Sara wanted to explain to her why those things had nothing to do with each other, but the words stuck in her throat. Instead, she let out a huff and took off the casual clothes she’d been wearing, so as not to draw attention on such a dangerous planet. The second her azure breasts met the open air, Peebee let out a whistle, and Sara shot her a glare. Of course, doing so meant seeing that the other woman was out of the water enough to reveal her own beautifully shaped breasts, making Sara blush so hard she was scared her blood might start dripping out of her nose.

Once in the nude herself, Sara slowly walked over and got into the water, and immediately forgot about any worries. The fluid was perfectly warm, not too hot, but not too cold, and it clearly wasn’t actually water. It wasn’t the right color, for one, and it was slightly more viscous, denser. Before she could ask, Sara got an answer from Peebee, who was lying back without any shame and closing her eyes in contentment. “These are  _ tira’sess _ , probably the greatest invention the Asari ever made. They’re filled with what’s basically hardcore mineral water from Thessia, and as you can see, they cure stress like nothing else in the world.” Sara hated to admit it, but she agreed with her friend there. “So, want to tell me what’s up with you still being an Asari?”

Any sense of calm and feeling at ease was immediately assaulted by that question, feeling like it came to Sara out of nowhere. After thinking over what to say, since she hadn’t told any of her squad the full details in the last month since this whole incident started, Sara decided to just rip the band aid off here and now, and took a deep breath. “So...they figured out a fix. Pretty quickly, too. Not only that, they’re working on a way to make species-altering treatments something more people can try, and it’s looking promising. But in order to become a Human again, since our link wasn’t set up for something like this in the first place, the procedure would completely and permanently burn out my connection to SAM.” Sara let those words hang in the air a bit.

The second Peebee heard them, she winced. “Ugh, that’s rough. So, I’m guessing that’s why I saw Scott back to Human-ness and Male-ness back at the Nexus?” That bit of news surprised Sara, since her brother and her crew didn’t interact a lot normally, but it also answered her question on why Peebee was so curious about this. If she saw Scott back to normal, it meant she knew there was a solution already available.

Sara nodded her head, closing her eyes to focus on the calming agents of the  _ tira’sess _ as she talked. “Yep. He didn’t mind losing the connection to SAM, and despite the new doors being an Asari offered, he was more interested in going back to being a guy.” Neither spoke for a little after that, instead soaking in the liquid, an unspoken question still in the air. Finally, Sara couldn’t help it anymore and decided to pull the trigger and answer it. “I’m still undecided. I miss being Human, and I’m still getting used to this new physiology. But there are advantages to being Asari, and maybe...I’d be happier like this. Plus, losing SAM...would be rough. He wants me to do it anyway, afraid of how this would affect my normal skillset and personality. Maybe he’s got a point...”

Both had noticed that, since becoming an Asari, Sara had been changing in small ways, almost undetectable to someone who didn’t know her as well. She had more energy, she was more vibrant, and more studious as well. Sara had always been more of a soldier than a scientist, unlike her brother who’d been the opposite, but her mind had been moving more towards intellectual pursuits as of late. She had to wonder: was this just due to the change in species? How long until she wasn’t really herself anymore?

Those deep thoughts were interrupted by the attendant coming in, apparently unphased by their nudity despite Sara’s clear embarrassment, and ushering them out of the room. Sara was going to move over to grab her clothes, but the attendant shook her head. “We’re all Asari here, and this is a place of healing. Do not fear being yourself.” Her words struck Sara as odd, but she decided to do as was asked and followed her through the building and into another room, where a set of two tables was waiting for them.

Sara wasn’t sure what to do, but watched as Peebee smiled and walked over to one and laid face-down on it. They were odd tables, padded and with a hole on one end where Peebee put her face. “Come on!” Peebee called, “This is why I brought you here. Best Asari masseuse in Andromeda!” Sara had never had a professional massage, but decided to trust her friend and laid on the table the same way Peebee had. “So, what else has been going on for you lately?” From there, the two friends chatted between each other about various subjects. How their lives were going, what Peebee was going to do with the near millenia in front of her, and how they could make decisions that can never be taken back.

At some point, the masseuse came in, though Sara couldn’t see her thanks to the angle. Still, Peebee hadn’t been lying about the woman’s skills. It was hard to continue talking when the hands were on Sara’s back, finding any source of stress and firmly pushing it out. She alternated between the clients, and when they were done, minds hazy from how calm they both felt they almost didn’t notice being handed their clothes so they could get dressed again.

One back at the front of the spa where they’d started, Sara tried to pay for both of them, but Peebee insisted on picking up the tab. Looking back, the best part of the day had been Peebee’s reaction to the news. Whenever Sara had thought about telling anyone what she was dealing with, she’d expected them to pressure her, either into turning back into a Human or staying an Asari. Especially Peebee, who had strong feelings about her people. But Peebee had been happy to listen to Sara as much as she wanted to talk, being supportive and never trying to push her into any one decision.

They were just about ready to leave when the door opened forcefully, and four Human men with high-powered assault rifles entered the building. “Hand over all the credits you have!” the one in front shouted, their guns trained on both the receptionist, who looked terrified, and Peebee and Sara. For a second, the Pathfinder froze, worried because she hadn’t brought any weapons or armor of her own with her. But then she remembered what she’d been training with, and she called on her biotic power.

The thugs never stood a chance. Before any of them could think about pulling a trigger, Sara increased the gravity on their guns by ten, sending them out of their hands. Then, she pulled them all to their side of the room. In the half a second it took to do all that, she also put her power onto the thugs themselves, binding them together so they’d be pulled into a pile of people in the air. She held them there until she was confident they were all unconscious, then released her power. Turning back to the receptionist, Sara told her to call security to take care of the trash. As they turned to leave the store, Sara swore she saw a manic grin on Peebee’s face.

As they headed back to the Tempest, Sara was deep in thought. Talking to Peebee, having that spa treatment, and seeing what she could do to those robbers with her biotics, it had all finally helped her arrive at a decision she’d been putting off for quite a while. She’d have to break the news to her squad, her brother, SAM, and the Nexus, but considering all she’d done for them she didn’t think anyone would push against her decision too much. After all, as Peebee had reminded her, she’s the Pathfinder who saved their asses.

* * *

“Hey, Scott, I know it’s been a while.”

The landscape of Eos had changed drastically since the first settlement began. What was once a dry, arid desert barely capable of supporting life was now a florid and beautiful jewel of a city, a rival to anything Earth had to offer before humanity, along with many other species of the Milky Way, left the galaxy behind to take a chance with Andromeda. Sara Ryder, the second Human Pathfinder, was standing in a beautiful field of grass and flowers, shaded from the still fairly harsh star of this system by a thick canopy of trees.

“I just got back, you know how it is. We’ve still only barely peeked outside the Cluster, and whenever we do those damn Kett bastards push us back. We got pretty damn far this time.”

From there, Sara told her brother about the many sights she’d seen in her brief journey into what else existed in the Andromeda Galaxy. Ruins of lost civilizations, systems with binary black holes, the deaths of friends and comrades along the way. She was the only visitor at the time, since the day was a holiday meant to be spent with friends and family. By this point, Sara was starting to get nervous, and ran a blue hand over the cartilage tendrils on her head.

“I just got back. You’re the first one I came to see, obviously. Every time I come back, I have to come here, and talk to you.”

There was a brief pause.

“I...I really miss you, Scott.”

Several feet in front of Sara, there were two gravestones, built in the style of where the Ryder’s were from on Earth, the ground in front of each holding a bundle of freshly picked Andromedan flowers. Each had a name written on it, ‘Scott Ryder’ and ‘Cora Ryder’, as well as their dates of birth and death. When the first Milky Way traveler passed away in Andromeda, there came the question of how to write the dates, considering the time everyone spent in suspended animation. In the end, they decided to mark the date of birth with whatever system the person’s people used back home, and to mark the date of death with how many years it was after the creation of the Nexus.

It had been over two hundred years since the day Sara Ryder had made the decision to stay an Asari and everything that entailed. That included outliving the ones she loved, and on days like this, she almost wished she’d made the other choice. [ **Sara, even after disconnecting from Scott for his Physiological Realignment, I still considered him a close friend.** ] Even though Sara wasn’t a Pathfinder anymore, having given up her seat to someone else ages ago, she kept her connection to SAM. “I know, SAM,” she told the AI, trying to ignore the tears rolling down her face. “He loved you too.” Sara raised a hand to wipe the tears away. Scott had always hated seeing her cry, and he’d told her before the end that if her tears got on his grave, he’d have to start haunting her. Even remembering the conversation brought up Sara’s mood, making her laugh.

“Well, well, well, if it isn’t Ex-Pathfinder Ryder. Funny seeing you here.” The playful voice had lost a touch of its energy with time, but that wouldn’t be enough to hide the identity of its speaker for Ryder. Sure enough, she turned around to see Peebee standing at the entrance to the cemetery, smiling sadly at her friend. Sara said a quick, quiet goodbye to her brother’s grave and closed the distance between her and the other Asari, as they gave each other a tight, warm hug. Once they broke contact, Peebee shrugged in the direction of a nearby bench and asked, “Want to chat?”

Sara nodded, and the two walked over to sit by each other. It was strange for Sara to look at her old friend, one of the last of her original squadmates to survive the years. She looked so different, if she could show a picture of her now to the Human Sara just starting out as a Pathfinder there was no way she’d guess this was Peebee. Gone was the raccoon face paint, something she’d stopped about a hundred years ago seemingly out of boredom, but that was just one piece. Having kids had changed her body, though not as much as it would a Human mother. Still, Peebee was a bit curvier than the archeologist Sara first met, and a little chunkier. More than that, Peebee just looked...happier.

The Peebee that Sara had known for a long time was one who was never happy unless she was living in the moment. She was flighty, spontaneous, and eager to try new things. But not long after she moved from her Maiden years into being a Matron, that started to change. Peebee bought a house, seemingly as a joke at first, here on Eos. Then, she had a kid, from a fling with a Krogan. Then...she met the love of her life. This Peebee was one happy where she was, for the first time in her life. “How’s the family?” Sara asked, genuine joy welling up inside her at seeing her friend so happy.

Of course, Peebee would always be Peebee. Her initial answer to the question was to roll her eyes and scoff. “ _ Ugh _ . The brat is somehow messing up her studies, even though she has me to turn to for help, which she never does. The ball and chain is the same as ever, critiquing my ‘Milky Way Attitude’, whatever that’s supposed to mean.” Even as she spoke poorly of her daughter and wife, Sara could see the love in Peebee’s eyes while she talked. Something occurred to Sara, making her start snorting with laughter. “What?” Peebee asked, looking indignant.

“It’s just...” Sara started to say, trying to fight through the laughter. “Look at us! Pelessaria B'Sayle, flightiest Asari in the universe and the ultimate defier of tradition and rules, settled down with a wife and kid. Sara Ryder, second Human Pathfinder and third Asari Pathfinder, savior of the Heleus Cluster, as single as she was back then even after two hundred years.” It wasn’t as if she hadn’t had suitors, it was just that none of them had really worked out.

Peebee laughed a little at the observation, but then a look passed by her face. The kind of teasing look that was so common back when she and Sara had first met. “Yeah, it’s a real mystery how the ‘greatest matchmaker in the galaxy’ is still single. After all, you had so many success stories under your belt!” Every word was dripping with sarcasm.

The claim hit a weird sore spot for Sara, even after a few centuries. “Hey, come on, I’m the one who set-up Scott and Cora, remember?” She tried not to feel sad when she remembered how her dorky brother and the hardass Cora had fallen so completely in love, how they’d started a family that Sara felt just a little estranged from, because of her change in species.

But while Sara was struggling with the long afterimages of grief, Peebee was looking at her like she’d grown an extra head. “You did  **not** set them up.” That shook Sara out of her reverie, and she looked at her friend in confusion. Shaking her head in annoyance, Peebee corrected her. “You were trying to set up Scott with Liam, even though the big lug was straight as an arrow, and Cora with Vetra, once again ignoring someone’s orientation. You sent them on a restaurant double date, and while Vetra and Liam got into a shouting match your brother and Cora left and started talking.”

As Peebee described the events, Sara realized she was right, time had clouded her memory of the events just a tad. But that didn’t mean Sara was just going to give up the point. “Well, since I set up the date, I still technically am responsible for them getting together. So there.” Then, just to add to the pettiness, Sara stuck her tongue out at Peebee, and they both collapsed into a fit of giggles.

“Did you hear about Jenn?” Peebee asked, decided to slightly change the subject away from the dead brother and sister-in-law. Jennifer Ryder was one of Scott and Cora’s many grandkids, and so far the stand-out of the lot. Sara shook her head, since she’d just come back and hadn’t heard anything about her grand-niece. “She took your old spot, she’s the new Pathfinder for the Humans.”

These days, being a Pathfinder was a lot different from what Sara did in her day. After all, the Cluster was pretty much completely explored and colonized, so Pathfinders were servants of the Nexus races, ready to assist however they could, and their defenders against the Kett. It wasn’t a surprise to Sara to hear that Jenn had already grown that much. When she’d left, the girl had been a teenager, but was already making waves with her intelligence and ingenuity. “I’ll have to congratulate her,” Sara said, genuinely feeling proud of the girl.

A knowing smile graced Peebee’s lips. “Oh, you’ll have to do more than that. I’m probably not supposed to tell you this,” the Asari said in the tone that made clear she absolutely  _ was _ supposed to be telling Sara this, “But she’s ready to kick your blue butt.” Sara let out a guffaw at the idea. After all, she was a force to be reckoned with even before becoming an Asari and one of the most powerful biotics in the Cluster. But Peebee looked even more amused hearing that. “Oh, baby girl, I wouldn’t be too cocky. Jenn has taken to the PAS like a Quarian to an engine-room. You’ve got competition for the title of ‘Toughest Ryder’.”

PAS stood for ‘Physiological Augmentation System’, the technology that had blossomed through the accidental interaction with SAM that had turned Sara into an Asari to begin with. Now, with two hundred years to perfect it and the proliferation of more SAM-like AI that bonded with people, being able to change species was easy, something that helped bring everyone closer together. Even if most of them just used it to become Asari, which didn’t surprise Sara in the slightest. “It’ll be a good fight, then,” was all Sara said out loud regarding the upcoming duel. Then, her mind took a more wistful turn, and she looked up into the sky. “Do you think we’ll ever hear from the Milky Way again?”

It was a question of much speculation as time went on. Sure, it would have taken more time to gather the resources to send out more Arks. But that time would also allow them to better work the FTL tech that Nexus had pioneered. If it took 150 years for them to work it out, they should have gotten more Arks in 50 years. But that isn’t what happened. No word of any kind had come from the sister galaxy, and many had taken that as the exact kind of bad sign that Sara feared it might be. Peebee had nothing to say on the subject. But then, as if to perfectly break the dour mood, her Omnitool beeped, and Peebee looked at a new message she’d received and groaned. “Ugh. It’s Warst.”

Sara immediately shared her pain. Warst was a Krogan who had caught Peebee’s fancy back in the day, though they’d never really dated. Somehow, he’d actually convinced Sara into a threesom with the two, which she couldn’t deny was a fun thing to think back on. Oh, and he was the father of Peebee’s daughter. “What’s he reaching out about?” Despite being a bit obnoxious, Sara didn’t completely agree with her friend’s take on the guy. Then again, Sara didn’t have to share custody of a kid with him either.

Looking at Sara and actually blushing, Peebee admitted, “He’s been wanting to know when you came back. He’s, uh, interested in seeing you again, solo this time.” From the way Peebee said it, Sara could tell she wasn’t very happy with the idea.

Putting a finger to her chin, Sara thought for a second and told her, “We can’t say I’m dead, he’d be able to fact-check that too easily. How about...ooh! Tell him I’m only into other Asari now.” Peebee laughed and sent out the message, leaving the two friends back sitting there, sharing the space. After taking a deep breath, Sara said something she’d been holding in for centuries. “It’s been tough, Peebee. When I chose to stay an Asari, I knew it meant outliving almost everyone. Scott, Cora, Liam, Vetra, Jaal. Really, it’s just you, me, and Drack left.” But then, weary as she felt, Sara gave her friend an honest smile. “What’s made it all work has been you. You’ve been here for me, hell or high water. Thanks for being my friend.” From there, the two got up from the bench and Peebee insisted on bringing Sara to her home to see the wife and kid. It was a colorful dinner, as was expected, but on the whole...Sara was happy. She knew she’d made the right choice.


End file.
